Method of making sulfuric anhydrid.



PatentedDec. 3l, !901.

B. KNIETSCH. METHOD OF MAKiNG SULFURIC ANHYDRID.

(Application filed Apr. 7. 1900.)

(No Model.)

D T A a R. Em

16 T M a haf h Urrnn reres ATENT OFFICE.

RUDOLF KNIETSOH, OF LUDYVIGSHAFEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO THE BADISCHE ANILIN 85 SODA FABRIK, OF LUDVVIGSHAFEN, GERMANY, A

CORPORATION OF GERMANY.

METHOD OF MAKING SULFURIC ANHYDRID.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patenta No. 690,062, dated December 31 1901.

Original application filed July 14, 1898, Serial No. 685369. Divide& and this application filed April '7, 1900. Serial No. 12,039. (No specimensl To all whom it may conccrn:

Be it known thatl, RUDOLF KNIETSCH, doctor of hilosophy, a subject of the King of Prussia,Enperorof Germany,residin g at Ludwigshafen-on-the-Rhine,Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, have invented certain new and usef ul Improvements in the Process for the Manufacture of Sulfuric Anhydrids, (which inventionis divided outof myapplicationtorLetters Patent filed July let, 1898, Serial No. 685,969, which application had previously been divided, giving rise to the application filed August 18, 1899, Serial No. 727,63G,) of which the following is a specification.

In my application, Serial No. 681969, filed July 14:, 1898, I described the apparatus and process described in this application. In the application, Serial No. 727,(336, filed August 1899, I described aspecific form of apparatus and claimed the specific apparatus and the process as carried out therewith. I file the present application as a division of the said application for the purpose of securing the specific claim on the said process.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a Vertical section of an apparatus containing a single contact-chamber, represented by a tube or pipe R. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of an apparatus containing a pluralityof contactchambers, represented by tubes or pipes R.

Referring first to Fig. 1, M represents a brickwork structure or an iron pipe. lVithin this a pipe R is fixed, leaving the passage S' between. This pipe R consists of two parts co and b, which have different functions and may difer from one another in length and diameter. Also either part can be replaced by aplurality of narrower pipes. The portion b ot' the pipe R is occupied bythe contact substance, (indicated in the drawings by broken section lines,) and this is cooled by the cold air entering the passage S' at n. ln the other part a of the pipe R the gases containing the sulfur dioxid which enter at O are heated to the temperature necessary for the reaction. `When commencing the operation, the whole apparatus is first raised to the temperature necessary for the reaction by heating by means of h 7-say gas-flames. Then, when gases rich in sulfur dioxid are used, after the reaction has once commenced further heating is unnecessary, because the air' as it passes through the pipe M in contact with that part b of the pipe R in which the reaction is in progress in extracting the eXcess of heat due to the reaction absorbs the heat and transfers sufficient heat to the other portion a to prevent a change of position of the reaction zone or the entire cessation of the reaction. The current of air can be regulated by means of the updraft-openings L L, which are adjustable by the' slides Z l. It is regulated in such a Way that the contact substance in b is constantly maintained at the most favorable temperature for the reaction. When the gases contain but little sulfur dioXid, the air, which is somewhat heated by its cooling' action on the contact substance, is further heated by suitable means h' h', (such as gas-flames,) so that the gases in flowing through part a receive a greater increment of heat. When the gases are still poorer in sulfur dioxid, it may be necessary to continually heatto some eX- tent the current of air fiowing in through n, either by means of the gas-flames at h h or in some other way. The gases containing the sulf uric anhydrid issuing from the contact-chamber b leave the apparatus by the pipe O and are worked up in any suitable way.

The apparatus represented in Fi g. 2 is made up of a plurality of contact-tubes R R, which are in connection with one another by means of the two tube-plates W W and the covers D D' above and below. In other respects it resembles Fig. 1.

It will now be Inanifest that in the operation above described there are two independent Currents of gas. One of them-the mixture containing sulfur dioxid and oxygen* passes through the pipe R and is converted. The other current, differently constituted, passes through the' passage adjoining the pipe R, but does not enter the contact material, and performs the function of transferring the eXcess of heat due to the reaction from the part b of the tube R to the part a thereof,

I claim-- 1. The heroin-described process of making sulfuric anhydri'd which consists in passing a gas containing sulfur dioxid and oxygen through a contact substance while removing excess of heat due to the reaction from the contents of the contact-chamber by means of a current ot' fluid which does not enter the contact material, substantially as described;

2. The herein-described process of making sulfuric anhydrid which consists in passing a gas containing sulfur dioxid and oxygen through a contact substa'nce while removing a current of fluid differently constituted from the said gas, substantially as described.

4. The heroin-described process of making i sulfuric anhydrid which consists in passing a current of gas containing sulfur dioXid and oxygen through a contact substance while transferrin g excess of heat due to the reaction` 'from the contact substance to said chamber by means of a second current of fluid differently constituted from and flowin'g in a direction inversely to that of the first-named current, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

RUDOLF KNIETSCH.

Witnesses u ERNEST F. EHRHARDT, JACOB ADRIAN. 

